With new releases of its products, VMware often creates new versions of virtual machine hardware in order to enable new capabilities and enhance overall VM scalability. With VMware Fusion version 4, VMware supports three versions of virtual machine hardware.
- Hardware version 8. Any virtual machines created with hardware version 8 are compatible with VMware Fusion 4, VMware Workstation 8 and ESXi 5. This version also supports the greatest number of features and has the most potential for scalability.
- Hardware version 7. Virtual machines that run with hardware version 7 can run in VMware Workstation 6.5 or higher, VMware Fusion 2 or higher or ESX/ESXi 4 or higher.
- Hardware version 6. This hardware version is supported by VMware Fusion 1, Workstation 6 or higher and ESX/ESXi 4 or higher.
Understanding these compatibility limitations is critical if you intend to share virtual machines between platforms.